My 2019 Writing Goals

This is my fourth year of setting my goals in public. I have been making plans – both personally and professionally – for a long time, but the added accountability of sharing them definitely helps me to stay on track.

Throughout 2018, I also swapped goals and progress with two writer friends on a weekly and monthly basis, and that was hugely helpful from both a productivity and happiness standpoint. I highly recommend finding an accountability partner if you can!

So, I will continue with the same system in 2019 – sharing my goals and progress both publicly on The Worried Writer and privately with my friends.

In 2018 I flirted with software solutions for ‘do do’ lists and planning, but kept falling back on my trusty Moleskine business planner. This year, I’ve treated myself to a Passion Planner (look at the pretty!) with some new washi tape and highlighters. I am hoping that the combination will help me to remember to follow my passion and to keep hold of the joy of creation, even while I get, inevitably, overwhelmed and and stressed…

So, 2019…

Writing

As always, I want to maintain focus on writing as my primary goal each and every day. I will write first thing, block out time in my schedule for writing, and track my word count (and time spent writing).

I am also going to practice dictation. I began experimenting with it at the end of 2018, but need to give it more of a go… I will start with non-fiction and note-taking, as that feels more doable than fiction, and re-read Christopher Downing’s Fool Proof Dictation book.

I have two books in progress at the moment: the second Crow Investigations mystery and something I have described to my agent as ‘magical realism Downton Abbey’. I am thoroughly enjoying both and want to finish them in the first half of 2019.

To stretch myself (and try for my most productive writing year ever), I’m planning to write the third Crow book in the second half of the year.

For non-fiction, I am considering writing the second Worried Writer book during the second half of the year, but I am concerned that might be a little bit too ambitious. Especially as I am feeling very fiction-focused at the moment. However, I am planning to write six articles for the site during the year, and some of those might form the basis of chapters in a new non-fiction book at a later date.

Finish Crow Investigations Book Two

Write Crow Investigations Book Three

Finish ‘magical realism Downton Abbey’ book and send to my agent

Write six articles for the Worried Writer

Publishing

Siskin Press will be two years old on the 1st March and I want to do a review of the company’s progress, including a breakdown of sales and different streams of income.

I want to make sure that I am making the most out of the creative assets at my disposal. This includes making sure that existing titles are in as many formats as possible and are widely available, and continuing to learn and improve my marketing/advertising activity using Amazon, BookBub and Facebook.

My author website is due an overhaul and I’m thinking of purchasing a pro WordPress theme to make this easier.

I want to continue to build my newsletter list and to improve my newsletters!

Create print and large print editions of The Secrets of Ghosts

Publish The Lost Girls, my supernatural thriller, at the end of January.

Put existing audio books ‘wide’ with Findaway Voices.

Either secure audio book publishing deals for The Night Raven and The Lost Girls or get the audio books made myself.

Create a workbook edition of Stop Worrying; Start Writing and a large print edition

Request the print rights back for my novella The Garden of Magic

Publish Crow Investigations books two and three

Learning

I learned lots about advertising and marketing in 2018. However, in 2019 I want to put far more of my knowledge into action, particularly with Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

I am going to try some video this year. Even if I decide I hate it and don’t even release the video, I need to give it a go!

As I am now a small publisher as well as a writer, I want to learn more about being a good publisher and improve my skills… One specific area is writing good book blurbs. This a definite skill and not one which comes naturally (to me at any rate). I have Bryan Cohen’s book How To Write A Sizzling Synopsis and I intend to work through it this month.

Creativity

Once again, I am putting the goal of scheduling ‘artist’ days (getting out and about to refill the creative well) onto my list. Perhaps this will be the year I manage it!

I also want to get out of the habit of staying on the computer, even when I’m not being productive, because it fees more like ‘work’ when I should just close the laptop and pick up a book!

Schedule one day per month to leave the house and go to a gallery (or to explore somewhere new, sit in a cafe with a notebook, walk up a hill etc)

8 thoughts to “My 2019 Writing Goals”

I really want to focus on my fiction writing this year and, dare I say it out loud, I’d like to get to the stage of publishing something. I love how you’ve broken down your goals into different areas. I’m wishing you a happy and productive 2019, with all of them achieved.

I just found you through your podcast so am catching up with blog posts too. You seem to have a huge amount on your plate this year, but then again, I’ve got some big hopes for publishing both fiction and non-fiction, too. For January I decided to publish my monthly goals online, and that has really motivated me to make sure I have progress to report for the first week in February! I completely identify with your aspiration to get off the computer once we’re no longer productive, for some quality leisure time instead. That’s definitely a failing of mine. 20BooksEdinburgh sounds intriguing & I’d love to know what you think. I’m volunteering next month at the San Francisco Writers Conference and am hoping for some good learning there too.

Hi Pauline, and thank you so much for reading and commenting. Good luck with your goals for the year – I love the idea of publishing them every month to help you to stay on track! And I am very envious of your conference plans, too; I would love to visit San Francisco one day. x

Hi Sarah, this is an excellent set of goals… not just because so many of them chime with mine! I’m sitting knitting while watching Dancing on Ice at the moment.
My main goal is for this to be the year when I edit and self publish my historical novel, and to do that I’m focusing on developing my creativity. It’s been swamped by work for so long but I’ve had some time freed up with the end of a long-standing consultancy assignment. So it’s going to be creative dates, a lot more reading, exploring some different forms of writing, returning to my favourite crafts and keeping a creative journal as I receive some coaching/mentoring.
I am also going to produce some courses along with my school funding nonfiction books, to try to build a passive income stream.
This has also reminded me that I must make sure I catch your blogs (I’ve signed up for the notifications) and get back in the habit of writing my own on my author website – I’ve had a major lapse!
Julie

Hi Julie. Those goals sound fabulous – well done! If I can offer some further advice, I recommend setting a date for publishing your novel (not in public, necessarily, just for yourself). Then you can work back from that, adding in dates for all the smaller tasks which lead up to it. And good luck! x